Benzema was tempted by moving to Arsenal, and Real were willing to sell, but the player would only have left the Bernabeu if he had been given a pay rise and if the Gunners had caved in to his demands.

The total cost of the transfer would have been £91million plus performance-related add-ons and would have comfortably topped the deals that enticed Mesut Ozil from Real in 2013 and Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona a year later.

The duo, who are Arsenal’s two top earners after Wenger himself, both earn £130,000-a-week plus bonuses.

Wenger was not put off the transfer fee but was unwilling to sanction what by a long distance would have been the most lucrative contract package in the club’s history for a player who turns 28 in December. He made offers to Benzema’s camp that were rejected.

With the two parties unable to strike a deal, Benzema took to Twitter eight days before the window closed to criticise the “clowns” who had claimed he could end his six-year Real association.

Real star: Benzema was close to joining Arsenal during the summer

Wenger subsequently turned to his native France and targeted a £50million double swoop for Edinson Cavani and his Paris Saint-Germain colleague Adrien Rabiot but was unable to agree a deal.

The manager’s failure to bolster his strikeforce with the “exceptional” player he was seeking has prompted criticism, particularly in light of the news that Danny Welbeck has undergone knee surgery.